Ohioans are moving left on marijuana and same-sex marriage, according to a poll released Monday by Quinnipiac University.The poll found an overwhelming majority — 87 percent — of
Ohioans support legalizing marijuana for medical uses. About 51 percent support allowing adults to legally possess a small amount of the drug. And 83 percent agree
marijuana is equally or less dangerous than alcohol.At the same time, 50 percent of Ohio voters now support same-sex marriage, compared to 44 percent who do not.A plurality of voters — 34 percent versus 26 percent —
also disapproved of Gov. John Kasich’s handling of abortion. (In the
latest state budget, Kasich and his fellow Republicans in the Ohio
legislature imposed new restrictions on abortions and abortion
providers.)Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,370 registered Ohio
voters from Feb. 12 to Feb. 17 for the poll, producing a 2.7 percent
margin of error.The findings indicate the state is moving left on the biggest social issues of the day.In 2004, Ohioans approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.Last year, a Saperstein Associates poll conducted for The Columbus Dispatch
found 63 percent of Ohioans favor legalizing medical marijuana, but 59
percent said they oppose full-on legalization. (Given the different
methodologies, it’s unclear how Saperstein Associates’ results compare
to Quinnipiac University’s poll.)Whether the liberal shift applies to ballot initiatives
remains to be seen. This year, two groups aim to get medical marijuana
and same-sex marriage on the Ohio ballot.Contrary to what polling numbers might imply, it
currently seems more likely same-sex marriage will end up on the ballot
this year. FreedomOhio, which is leading the effort, says it already has
the petition signatures required to get the issue on the ballot in
November, even though other LGBT groups, including Equality Ohio, say
the effort should wait until 2016.Meanwhile, the Ohio Rights Group admits it doesn’t yet
have the signatures required to get medical marijuana on the ballot. The
organization has until July to gather 385,247 petition signatures,
which in large part must come from at least half of Ohio’s 88 counties.
In the very unlikely scenario the Ohio Rights Group gets all the petitions in circulation back with 36 legitimate signatures filled out on each, the organization would
have about 246,000 signatures.Still, with support seemingly growing, it seems unlikely
medical marijuana and same-sex marriage will remain illegal in Ohio for
much longer.

The Ohio Rights Group could get medical marijuana
legalization on the ballot this November, but the group first must gather enough petition signatures. Although the campaign has
medical research and polling in its favor, it’s also struggled to raise a
significant amount of cash to support a statewide campaign. At the same
time, many entrepreneurs see the legalization of medical marijuana as
inevitable; over the past weekend, Comfy Tree Cannabis Collective held a
seminar to advise potential businesses on the inner workings of selling
legalized marijuana.Commentary: “Budget Promises Spur Fears of Cuts.”Hamilton County Commissioner Chris Monzel says the county
is willing to go to court to fight Cincinnati’s “responsible bidder”
rules for Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) projects. The county says
the rules are illegal, burden businesses and favor unions. But city officials, particularly
Councilman Chris Seelbach, says the rules help train workers and create
local jobs. The rules impose stricter job training requirements on MSD
contractors and require them to fund pre-apprenticeship programs that
would help train new workers in different crafts.Larry Ealy, a Dayton-area man, could challenge
gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald in a Democratic primary, but the
chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party cautions that Ealy
consistently fails to gather enough signatures for his election bids. In
the past, Ealy attempted to run for various offices in Dayton.City officials and the Cincinnati Public Schools Board plan to
announce a new collaboration today. The initiative intends to align and
better implement the city and school district’s shared policy goals.
“We want to establish the framework and make sure the right culture is
there,” Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, who announced the collaboration,
previously told CityBeat. “Then people can do what elected officials are supposed to do: roll up your sleeves and come up with smart, viable policies.”Following the demolition of the University of Cincinnati’s
Wilson Auditorium, it’s unclear what, if anything, will replace the
building.The Ohio Supreme Court reminds state judges that the conditions for jailing people over unpaid fines are limited.As people turned up the heat to deal with the polar vortex, they also drove gas prices — and future bills — up.LED lights make cities look cooler on camera.A new mind-controlled robotic hand comes with a sense of touch.Follow CityBeat on Twitter:• Main: @CityBeatCincy • News: @CityBeat_News • Music: @CityBeatMusic • German Lopez: @germanrlopezGot any news tips? Email them to glopez@citybeat.com.

If you have any questions about Cincinnati, CityBeat’s staff will do its very best to answer if you submit them here.
The Ohio Ballot Board certified an amendment
that would legalize medical marijuana and industrial hemp in Ohio.
Petitioners will now have to gather 385,253 signatures to get the issue
on the ballot — most likely this year or 2014. CityBeat previously covered Ohio’s medical marijuana movement in greater detail here.
Republican county commissioners are asking the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana Regional Council of Governments to pull $4 million in streetcar funding,
but the city says OKI can’t legally do it. Commissioners Greg Hartmann
and Chris Monzel, who are also members of the OKI board, made the
request in a letter. City spokesperson Meg Olberding says OKI was simply
an agency that passed the money along as it worked through the Federal
Transit Administration (FTA) to OKI to the Southwest Ohio Regional
Transportation Authority (SORTA), and the agreement doesn’t allow OKI to
interfere any further. This morning, the city’s Twitter account
tweeted, “City has confirmed with Feds that OKI cannot pull streetcar $
bc funds are already obligated to this federal project.”
Ohio released its first ever statewide report on voter fraud yesterday, called the “Post-2012 General Election Voter Fraud Report.”
Secretary of State Jon Husted said the report shows voter fraud exists,
but it’s “not an epidemic.” That coincides with previous findings from
researchers: An extensive study of the nation’s databases by News21, a
Carnegie-Knight journalism initiative, found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Ohio Democrats are proposing more accountability rules
for JobsOhio, including adherence to public record laws, open meeting
laws, state ethics laws for employees and full state audits. JobsOhio is
a privatized nonprofit agency established by Gov. John Kasich and
Republican legislators to eventually replace the Ohio Department of
Development. They claim the privatized nature of the agency allows it to
respond to economic problems more quickly, but Democrats say the agency
redirects public funds with minimal oversight.
Cincinnati will host a march against genetically modified organisms
Saturday as part of the international March Against Monsanto. The
movement’s organizers are calling on participants that explain the facts
of genetically modified organisms, encouraging “no slandering, no
opinions or paper — just facts.” The protest is scheduled for 1 p.m. at
Piatt Park.
A.G. Lafley is reclaiming the top spot at Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble. The company says the change is not part of a deeper issue.
The 35th annual Taste of Cincinnati begins tomorrow.
Win or lose, the University of Cincinnati baseball team has a lot of fun.
An adorable Labrador Retriever puppy had her heart cured after a minimally invasive heart procedure — the first ever in the Tri-State.
Salamanders have some lessons for humans when it comes to regrowing limbs.

Republican Ohio state legislators are working to take away
unauthorized immigrants’ right to receive driver’s licenses, a
privilege recently granted temporary amnesty by the federal government. CINCINNATI -1

State Rep. Connie Pillich announced today that she will run for state treasurer,
putting the Greater Cincinnati Democrat on a collision course with
current Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Republican who ran for U.S. Senate
last year. Before becoming state representative, Pillich was in the Air
Force, a lawyer and a small business owner. “Whether as a captain in
the Air Force, a lawyer and owner of a small business, or a
representative in the legislature, I’ve dedicated my career to listening
to concerns, creating a plan of action, and working hard to deliver
real results,” she said in a statement.
Attorney General Mike DeWine certified the ballot language
for an amendment that would legalize medical marijuana in Ohio, opening the
possibility that the issue will be on the ballot in 2013 or 2014. CityBeat wrote more about the amendment and the group behind it here.
Supporters of the Medicaid expansion are hosting a
public meeting and presentation today at 10 a.m. at the Red Cross
headquarters at 2111 Dana Ave. CityBeat previously covered the
Medicaid expansion, which supporters claim will save the state money
and insure half a million Ohioans in the next decade, here.
Ohio is one of many states preparing to adopt Common Core
standards and other reforms in schools, but a recent survey by the
Thomas B. Fordham Institute of the state’s superintendents declared that
the state is not ready
for all the changes being proposed. Terry Ryan of the Thomas B. Fordham
Institute says Ohio should consider slowing down to give legislators
and educators more time to work through the new requirements.
A new Ohio bill would require only one license plate per vehicle,
potentially saving the state $1 million a year. But critics say the
bill would limit the amount of tools available to law enforcement to
fight and prevent crime.
Nearly two-thirds more suburban residents live below the poverty line in comparison to 2000, according to “Confronting Suburban Poverty in America,” a book by two Brookings Institution fellows. The book uses U.S. Census Bureau data to form a clearer picture on U.S. poverty trends. Previous analyses have correlated the U.S. rise in poverty with welfare reform, which former President Bill Clinton signed in 1996.
Ohio and U.S. gas prices are spiking this week.
It’s going to be hot today.
A study found a correlation between fiscal conservatives and big biceps.
The first American mission to sample an asteroid is moving forward.

The Ohio Rights Group could be asking voters to legalize medical marijuana and industrial hemp statewide
in 2013 or 2014. The Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati says
drug approval should be up to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
but that may not matter because polls so far shows medical marijuana
getting widespread approval from Ohio voters. The Ohio Rights Group
argues its amendment would help Ohioans by opening up better health
treatments and boosting the economy. Whether that will be enough to land
the issue on the ballot remains to be seen.Mayor Mark Mallory revised the city manager’s budget plan
to carry out less layoffs but more cuts to outside spending and
recreation centers. Mallory's changes will restore 18 firefighter
positions, 17 police positions, three inspector positions at the Health
Department and two positions at the Law Department, reducing the total
layoffs to 161, with 49 of those being police positions and 53 being
firefighter positions. But it will come with more cuts to third-party
agencies, including the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority, the Center
for Closing the Health Gap and Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of
Commerce, and two closed recreation centers. The plan will also use
about $500,000 in recently discovered revenue. Mallory said the layoffs and cuts have to be made in part because of multiple outside factors, including reduced state funding and courts holding up the city's parking plan.The first hearing on the city's fiscal year 2014 budget proposals will be tonight at the Duke Energy Convention Center at 6:30 p.m. The public will be asked to give feedback on the budget plan put forward by the city manager and mayor, which would lay off 161 city employees, including cops and firefighters, to help balance the city's $35 million operating budget deficit.CityBeat editorial: "Cincinnati's 1 Percent."The Ohio Department of Transportation has raised its estimated price for the MLK/I-71 Interchange project by about $10 million to $30 million after meetings with business owners in Cincinnati's uptown area. It's so far unclear how the project's costs will be divided between the city, state and federal governments. Originally, Cincinnati was looking to pay for its share of the project through its plan to lease the city's parking assets, but that plan is being held up in court.City
Council approved a resolution yesterday supporting a statewide ban on
injection wells used to dispose wastewater during the hydraulic
fracturing — "fracking" — process, a drilling process that injects
millions of gallons of water underground to unlock natural gas and oil
reserves. The injection wells are a vital part of a fracking boom that
has helped revitalize economies in Ohio and other states and could help combat climate change,
but environmentalists and health advocates are concerned about the
unintended consequences the wells could have on nearby water sources ("Boom, Bust or Both?" in issue of June 6, 2012).The Ohio House approved changes to the state's third grade reading requirement that will relax standards teachers must meet to provide reading instruction and tutoring services for young students. The current law requires teachers to have taught reading for at least three years, but the bill approved by the Ohio House would eliminate that requirement.Mayoral candidate John Cranley says choosing Cincinnati's next police chief should wait until the next mayor is elected in November.The Hamilton County Board of Elections sent two more voter fraud cases to the prosecutor, but the question remains whether the dozens of people who filed provisional ballots and absentee ballots are actually in the wrong — an issue that will be ultimately decided by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.Top public safety issues are urging schools not to arm teachers to protect students from gun violence. CityBeat previously found that arming teachers is not supported by research.Ohioans, including CityBeat’s most dazzling staff member, apparently enjoy swearing.Before the IRS harassed tea party groups, it harassed gay rights groups.No further explanation necessary: "Police: Man used grenade to rob Hamilton bank."Scientists have created the first cloned human embryo.A new laser scanner can detect someone watching you from a kilometer away.

There are certain topics that newspaper headline writers enjoy a lot, the type of stories that allow for the creation of puns so funny that every elderly person who can still read 48-point font will laugh until they pee their pants (and then hopefully laugh about that). One such topic offered itself to The Enquirer today — the possible legalization of medical marijuana — and its online editor came through with the following: “Pot ballot measure now a joint effort.”

State Sen. Bill Seitz supports concept, but not this bill

Depending on how you read the tea leaves, support for some sort of marijuana legalization might be at an all-time high among Americans. As a result, Ohio State Rep. Kenny Yuko (D-Richmond Heights) recently introduced House Bill 478, which would legalize the use, growth and dispensing of medical marijuana for persons suffering from debilitating conditions including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. State Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Green Township) supports medical marijuana but thinks it should be legalized at the federal, not state, level.